Elim Church Centre - About Selly Oak Church

About Selly Oak Elim Church

Have you ever wondered what's behind those blue doors?

What is our history?

Selly Oak Elim Church was founded in 1936 (2006 was the church's 70th anniversary), born out of Birmingham's Pentecostal Revival of the 1930s. The church first met in people's homes and then in the Institute building on Bristol Road before moving to a permanent site in Alton Road. In 1983, two buildings later, the church were outgrowing their premises and arranged to swap buildings with St. Wulstan's. Today, we meet at Elim Church Centre on Exeter Road (2006 was the building's 100th anniversary and the church's 70th anniversary).

Click here to see archive photos of the Alton Road days

What are we about?

We are a group of people from various walks of life who are committed to living-out our faith in the context of today's society. We seek new and creative ways to demonstrate God's love and mercy. We believe that the Church has been given the task of announcing the good news of God's Kingdom and bringing the reign and reality of Jesus into people's lives.

As a church, we place a high priority on contemporary worship, relevant biblical teaching, authentic community, every-member ministry and missions.

What are our priorities?

Worship
Our highest purpose in life is to love and honour God. We want to worship him in everything we do as a church. We express our worship corporately on Sundays using contemporary music and songs.

Preaching and Teaching
We want to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and equip the church from the Word of God to do the works of Jesus - to be an active workforce, not a passive audience.

Community
We want to develop meaningful relationships with one-another, modelling Christ's love, humility, integrity and sincerity.

Missions
We want to see God's influence extend into our local community, into the nation and into the rest of the world. We desire to train, equip and release people to serve God on the mission field.

Healing

We want to see people made whole at every level of their life by the power of God.

Children & Youth

We want to see young people becoming passionate about Jesus, his Church and a lost world. We want them to find their identity in Christ and discover God's purpose for their life, making sense faith in the context of their everyday lives.

Students
We want to provide a nurturing environment for Christian students during their time in Birmingham and reach-out in love to students who do not yet know Jesus.

Seniors

We honour and value the older generation. We want to see seniors recognise their ongoing and vital role within the church, and reach out to seniors in the community.

S.H.A.P.E

What are our purposes?

We want to become a church where no-one stands alone and no-one stands still. In other words, we want to nurture 'real community' and 'real commitment' in order to become a church…

where people feel loved, accepted, supported and valued.
where everyone has the opportunity to experience authentic biblical community.
that regularly sees non-believers coming to faith and entering into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.
that takes discipleship seriously: where believers are growing in knowledge, bearing good fruit, serving in humility, and sharing their faith.
that is outward-looking: reaching out in love to those who are in need.

The diagram below is a visual representation of our purposes:

ADAPTED FROM THE 'PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH' BY RICK WARREN

We want to see people moving from the COMMUNITY, to the CROWD, and then to the CORE

CORE

Those who love Jesus and are actively using their gifts to serve the church and reach-out to others

CROWD

Those who have a relationship with Jesus, and are part of the wider church family, but are

yet to discover and/or begin using the gifts and abilities God has given them

COMMUNITY

Those who do not yet have a relationship with Jesus but who are linked

to the church through existing relationship networks